Cape Town - Mixed communities in Plumstead and Wynberg say the construction of a MyCiTi “freeway” through their peaceful suburbs will, like the Group Areas Act of apartheid, rip apart their neighbourhoods and their families.
More than 30 City of Cape Town tenants – including pensioners, single mothers and families with children at nearby schools – have been served with notices by the city’s property department, instructing them to move out of their council-owned homes by January next year.
“They’ve just thrown us out like dogs,” said Mogamat Bester, head of the South Road Families Association. “We are ratepayers and we pay rent.”
Others said the planned evictions harked back to the days of District Six, when families were scattered across the peninsula after the bulldozers moved in.
Bester, who was given his notice to vacate a few weeks ago, has vowed to fight the evictions. Legal advice has already been sought, and Bester is working on getting signed petitions of support from the area’s schools, churches and mosques.
He said it was understood that there were three phases to the city’s proposed MyCiTi route: the South Road demolition, the Brodie Road couplet in Wynberg and eventually the Constantia Road couplet.
Bester spoke to the Cape Argus on behalf of some of the residents who were shell-shocked after hearing at last week’s meeting of the Wynberg Residents and Ratepayers’ Association that the road was a “done deal”.
One resident, who has lived in her house since the late 1960s, was too ill to attend the meeting. Another spoke of the toll the uncertainty was having on her health.
But amid the anxiety and anger, there was also a strong sense of community and compassion. Recurring comments were “we’ll fight this together” and “we are not leaving”.
Ironically, the city’s intention to go ahead with a road scheme that was first mooted during apartheid to divide Wynberg along racial lines, has united residents of all races and religions in opposition.
For some, like Duncan Human, 76, this is not the first time they have stared eviction in the face.
Human, who has lived in Pluto Road, Plumstead, for more than 40 years, took the city to court in 2008 when he was first told to vacate his property.
He won his case.
“This is disturbing news for me. I’m 76 years old. Where am I going to go to? I’ve been through this before.”
The residents are adamant that they don’t want to leave.
“We don’t want alternatives, we want to stay here,” said John Abrahams. “We want public participation. There’s a highway coming through and it will bring noise and an influx of people to our area.”
One of the residents claimed he was told that if he did not like the city’s plans, he could live in Blikkiesdorp.
Lisa Miller’s house in Pluto Road will be flattened to make way for a MyCiTi bus stop. The planned road will have a devastating impact on her family.
“We can’t afford to buy a house, so I will have to take my daughter out of school and move to Pretoria where I can stay with family.”
Miller will have to leave her husband, a policeman, behind in Cape Town as he will be able to stay at the barracks.
Joanne Louw lives with her mother, a pensioner, and her 14-year-old son. She’s delighted that he has been accepted at a leading high school in the area. But, now she will have to find somewhere else to live.
“We will sit with our belongings in our gardens,” she said.
Another mother of three is concerned about schooling options. One of her daughters is at Vista Nova, and the school’s bus picks her up at their home.
“Where we are now, we are comfortable and safe. And now for council to tell us we have to move…”
The city has confirmed that tenants renting city-owned properties have been given four months’ notice to vacate their houses and to find alternative accommodation.
Brett Herron, mayoral committee member for Transport for Cape Town, said the bus lanes along South Road would “by and large” fall within the road reserve defined by the original scheme that was approved by the Protea Subcouncil in 2002.
He said the properties were acquired by the city over a period specifically for the purpose of the road scheme and “it was always the city’s intention that these properties would be demolished to make way for the construction of the proposed road”.
But Kristina Davidson, of the Wynberg Residents and Ratepayers’ Association, said a town planner had indicated earlier this year that the couplet road for a bus service made no sense as it would simply place a bus lane parallel to the existing railway line.
It was recommended that the bus rapid transit (BRT) should end at the Wynberg Transport Interchange where commuters could switch to a taxi or train.
Davidson said Wynberg was an area of high pedestrian activity and the proposed couplet would create a one-way “race track” with limited pedestrian access.
“The city regards the road scheme as part of the long-term ‘mobility solution’. Yet those same schemes were developed in the 1950s and 1960s, when the car was king and building roads was all the rage. The proposed couplet/South Road makes sense if the aim is to increase car mobility but does not make sense in terms of accessibility for passengers.”
It was also contrary to the national public transport strategy which called for integrated public transport networks.
“It would appear that the BRT concept is being misused to get funding for a road scheme that nobody wants,” she said.
Cape Argus